Program: Michigan State University
Appropriation: |
All from Federal Funds: |
$210,000 |
|
Total: |
$210,000[9] |
Program Description:
This line item represents a grant from the federal government. It is designed to provide education and research for EPA plans involving the use of pesticides.
Recommended Action:
This line item could be struck from the budget. The MDA should not act as a pass-through agency for any Michigan university. This sort of “hidden funding” obscures the true cost of operating Michigan’s extensive public university system. If Michigan State University has an interest in ongoing pesticide research, it could appropriate the money from the $326 million it will receive from the state in fiscal year 2003, or, federal law permitting, apply for a grant to the federal government directly.[10] An even better solution would be to use money from the considerable private donations MSU receives each year. Indeed, since July of 1999 alone MSU has raised $80 million just for its endowment (which now stands at $800 million); another $420 million was raised in cash, pledges and deferred gifts for annual expenditures; excluding the $46 million that was raised privately just to fund facility repair and construction. Whether or not MSU would be willing to support the program with money it earned by soliciting donations for the university is the perfect litmus test for evaluating the importance of the EPA program to MSU. This will force MSU officials to look harder at whether its pesticides program is truly worthwhile. Savings: $210,000.